COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—Sam Baker had a whistle around his neck and a crutch under his arm at a recent Air Academy football practice.

The good news is Baker is at practice, teaching young players what he learned in his previous years as a Kadet.

The bad news is Baker had his leg amputated Jan. 7 after missing his senior season last year.

Instead of opening holes as an offensive lineman, he was suffering through chemotherapy to treat osteosarcoma and living day to day.

“It’s nice to be able to make plans now and have a bit of a normal life,” Baker said. “It was hard last year when I’d miss a game or a homecoming dance.”

Baker persevered thanks to his faith and sense of humor, along with constant support from family and friends.

Near the end of school last spring, Air Academy coach Mike Hillstrom asked Baker if he’d like to be a volunteer coach for the freshmen. For Baker, who was in a wheelchair at the time, it was an easy decision.

“He loves it,” said Baker’s mother, Shanda, a preschool teacher. “He comes home talking about the kids, and he’s so excited. He’s having so much fun. He always talks about being a mechanical engineer, but I see him being a teacher or a coach. He’s so good with kids.”

Doctors proclaimed Baker cancer-free, although he’ll have checkups every three months for the next year, then every four months, then twice a year, and finally once every 12 months.

Baker’s lower right leg and foot are attached to his upper right thigh, with the foot turned backward and functioning as his knee. Below that is his titanium leg and foot. When the final fitting for his prosthetic leg is done, he’ll walk without a crutch.

“He calls himself ‘Flipper foot,'” Shanda said. “A little boy at the Denver Zoo asked him what happened, and he said doctors gave him a robot leg.

“People come up and thank him for his (military) service, but he doesn’t tell them he had cancer. He’s worried they’ll be reluctant to thank a soldier when they do see one.”

The 6-foot-2 Baker said he weighs 215 pounds, same as last year.

“But I have one less leg, so I guess I gained some fat,” he said.

Baker fits in easily among Air Academy coaches and players. They throw good-natured barbs at the 19-year-old, though their respect is obvious.

“We talk to our players so much about overcoming adversity,” Hillstrom said. “We’ve used Sam as an example so many times. He’s a perfect example—an extreme example—of the things we talk about so often.

“I’ve been coaching 20 years, and we’ve had kids go through things, but this is a first for me, a kid battling something that serious. The way he did it was just incredible. He was an inspiration to us.”

Sam said his “stoic” personality mirrors that of his father, John, an Air Force master sergeant.

“When Sam was in pain and having treatment,” Shanda said, “I told him, ‘You’re allowed to have a bad day. You can yell, scream, hit something.’ He just said, ‘OK, I know.’ He was just amazing. He’s always been very mature, and he never thinks of himself as handicapped, even now.”

Baker plans to begin classes at Colorado-Colorado Springs next semester but figures to counsel others the rest of his life.

“I thought I’d have to look for opportunities, but they just pop up,” he said. “My friend’s neighbor has the same cancer I did, and I talked to them. People keep telling me about others like me.”

Today, one out of every three men imprisoned in Colorado -- and four out of every five women inmates -- say they have some type of moderate to critical mental health need, according to the Colorado Department of Corrections. The number of inmates with mental health needs in Colorado's prisons has steadily risen in the past two decades.

Maybe you've got plans to camp this weekend (just watch out for the mud and, er, snow up there), go for a hike or maybe you just want to lounge by the pool and kick it. Unfortunately, Mother Nature doesn't always necessarily cooperate.